Is technology uniting the world?
Is the technology revolution going to end? Bill Gates was asked this question at a Microsoft product launch in March and answered with an emphatic, if predictable: "No, in the decades ahead I don't see any limits."
Faced with the almost daily barrage of innovations and promise of technology solving the world's problems and making our lives easier, it is easy to agree with him.
Life without a computer and the Internet, shopping without Amazon or eBay is hard for many of us to imagine. Will advances in artificial intelligence mean that in 20 years time robots will be helping us in our homes fitted with intelligent computer systems to keep us safe, warm and entertained?
For the majority of the world's population, though, these are not pressing concerns. From harnessing renewable energy sources and perfecting tsunami early warning systems, to creating global networks of communication through the Internet and open source software, technology is being used to try and solve a myriad of problems across a range of areas.
But is technology uniting the world and solving the important problems we face or highlighting global divisions?
The boom in technology in the past thirty years and more recently with the rise of Internet billionaires has resulted in the creation of a new breed of super-rich.
It's led to the formation of charitable organisations, such as the Google Foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but in recent years there have been more efforts to tailor technology to directly tackle problems in developing countries. One well-publicized initiative is the One Laptop Per Child program. Set up in 2005 by Nicholas Negroponte, he planned to develop a laptop costing just $100 using open source software.
Despite the projected price for each computer being $175, what was first dismissed by Apple's Steve Jobs as "a science project," has attracted the interest of seven countries - Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Libya and Thailand.
Other educational initiatives include Richard Baraniuk's plan to create a free, global online education system. In 1999 the professor from Rice University set up Connexions, an open access repository of material where teachers, authors and students can create and own educational courses and materials.
Critics have wondered why broadband internet access and a laptop for children is a priority for countries where not all have access to basic amenities, education and health care. They see the OLPC project and Microsoft's unveiling of a $3 software suite for developing countries cynical attempts to get more money out of poor people.
Whatever their motive, these projects do fit in government policies across the world. Last year, Ethiopia - a country where just 1.2 percent of the population has a telephone - announced plans to spend around $100 million on a scheme to link almost every village via satellite broadband within three years.
The rights and wrongs of this project are debateable, but there's no doubt a technological "silver bullet" is a seductive ideal for governments. It's one that Ian Scoones and Melissa Leach of the STEPS Centre believe does not benefit their citizens.
They suggest that top-down innovations are actually hampering efforts to alleviate poverty. Innovation and technology might now be seen as an essential tool in international development, but they suggest that governments' drive for economic growth and the pursuit of a technological cure all is ignoring the people they are aimed to help.
One man actively harnessing grass roots ideas is Anil Gupta and the Honey Bee network. A professor at Ahmedabad University in India, his Honey Bee Network was set up over 15 years ago to help capture and develop ideas coming from local people in rural areas.
Gupta has found ways to spread all the good ideas coming from local people who might not have had the education or opportunity to develop their invention. By manufacturing the best, Gupta has been able to spread the ideas and let the inventors profit from them. They might not be using the latest technology, but they are changing lives.
Mechanical engineer Amy Smith heads the D-Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; she's also using old technology to solve age-old problems. From finding new sources for charcoal briquettes in Haiti, where 98 percent of the country's rainforests have been destroyed, to developing electricity-free refrigeration, Smith has been instrumental in matching the technology to the problem. Proving that sometimes the most basic technologies and simplest innovations can bring about the most change.
What do you think? Use the form below to have your say on any of the issues in this article.
Technology unites the world no doubt, because technology through communication has succeeded in informing almost everybody of the problems the world is facing. But what technology has failed to do is to solve the real problems the world is facing.
I have always been of the view that each of these issues is a cross-cutting issue. Thus the need to link up, say technology and innovation to alternative energy as we address the issue of development. More important is the understanding of the underlying factors that are contributing to the current challenges.
I quite agree with Bill Gates that the technology of today will have no limits and that new developments in information and technology will bring urban and rural areas together.
Technology is uniting the world and at the same time accentuating global divisions. It's a natural effect. A new reality that must be found to validate the large number of benefits of innovation and technology.
Countries like Pakistan cannot receive the benefit from these reforms in technology, because the leaders of this country at least are not concerned about developments that benefit the common man. Too often development grants for infrastructure or technology have been not found their intended destination.
Technology is uniting the world and at the same time accentuating global divisions. It's a natural effect. A new reality that must be found to validate the large number of benefits of innovation and technology.
A very thought provoking discussion. There is probably an element of truth in both positions, that is, technology is uniting the world and at the same time accentuating global divisions. The former is clearly evidenced by increasing ease of communication across the world, which facilitates commerce. With respect to the latter, as technology develops the basic technological needs, like the telephone, might become redundant in the first world. This could mean that the basic needs of the marginalised will no longer be capable of being met.
Bravo to those who are passionate in bridging the gaps that separate humanity. Technology is a one of the reconciling tools in human history. We can use it well for bringing the world together and for creating a friendly world community. Darfur could be brought to peace if those there could be empowered to read and communicate with the rest of the world through technology.
I would like to encourage a dialogue between educated persons on the technologies that will adequately save us as a world community. Panic is certain. What I am recommending here is to distinguish between healthy panic and unhealthy panic. To resort to older technologies that have been essentially rejected is unhealthy panic.
Healthy panic is to do as much as possible oneself. This must include educating oneself. I belief debates on the promising technologies themselves will provide the unity necessary. We must make carbon accounting as accurate as possible. Intentional falsification of the most promising technologies shows up in carbon accounting.
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